1. Field of Invention
This invention generally relates to an apparatus and method therefor for rapidly drying a nail polish or enamel that has been applied to a human nail; more particularly, the invention concerns an apparatus and method therefor that first applies a coating of a photo-reactive chemical to a freshly polished nail and then exposes the nail to ultraviolet radiation which reacts with the coating and completely dries the nail polish within three minutes.
2. Background of the Invention
In the past, nail polish and enamels were air dried after they were applied. This process required a very long period of time before the nail polish dried on the nails. While waiting for the polish to dry, the polish wearer had to avoid touching the surface of the nails, or else the polish would smear or smudge, resulting in a ruined manicure. In effect, the wearer was prevented from using their hands in any normal everyday activity while the polish was drying. This especially proved burdensome for salon customers who needed to manipulate purses, car keys and other objects immediately after receiving a manicure.
Realizing the burden that air drying method put on people with freshly manicured hands, devices were developed to try to expedite the drying process. (See, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,374,472 and 2,262,274) These devices generally consisted of a box-like dryer which blew or circulated hot or cold air onto the nail's surface for a specified period of time. However, these devices could only dry the top coating on the nail and did not dry the nail polish underneath the top coating. Consequently, additional exposure to the air was required to dry the lower coatings of nail polish and the manicure was still easily ruined if the nail's surface came into contact with another hard surface. As a result, nail polish wearers still had to use their hands cautiously for several hours so as not to ruin the manicure.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,928,113 discloses a process for coating nails comprised of the steps of applying a water soluble base coat to the nails, allowing the base coat to dry, then applying a photocurable nail lacquer and curing the lacquer by exposing it to sufficient amounts of radiation. The alleged inventive purpose behind this patent was to try to develop a nail coating that could be removed by water instead of by an acetone based commercially available nail polish remover. Accordingly, the nail lacquer was specifically designed for a water soluble base coat and commercially available nail polishes could not be used in the process. U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,260 discloses a process of applying a photocurable coating to an artificial nail tip whereby upon exposure to suitable radiation the coating hardens to give the appearance of a natural nail. The photocurable coating being devoid of any solvents is very difficult to remove if applied to commonly used nail polishes. Thus, while both these reference are relevant to show the general state of the art, neither is directed to the inventive purpose behind the subject invention which is to rapidly dry any commercial available nail polish and enamel.
Accordingly, a need still exists for a nail drying apparatus and method therefore, which utilizes ultraviolet radiation, in safe dosages, and a photo-reactive coating, that can dry any commercially available nail polishes and enamels after they have been applied to a human nail.